User experience is becoming central to IT services and support and investment decision-making.

The critical difference between SLA and XLA is the approach to and regard for users.

SLAs deal strictly in statistics: users are seen in terms of percentages, rather than as people. Provided a certain threshold is met, the effect on individuals is largely overlooked. Hence the well-known ‘watermelon effect’, where the dashboard is all green yet users are still seeing red and complaining about the IT services they actually consume every day.

Because the XLA aims to give every user a great experience, there’s no place for thresholds and minimum service levels: nothing less than 100% will do. Achieving it is a journey that customer and provider undertake together, adding and investing in tech, training, services and support over time as required.

It also replaces the traditional, reactive approach to IT support with proactive prevention and outreach. To support its XLA service, Acora has created a unique Experience Team – a handpicked group of analysts and problem-solvers dedicated to identifying actual or potential impacts on user experience. A separate team of Experience Fixers carry out root-cause analysis and identify appropriate resolutions or mitigation activities.

For users, this proactive approach – addressing underlying IT issues that cause interruptions and frustrations, not just fixing problems as they occur – helps them maintain their ‘flow state’, improving productivity and satisfaction levels.

For IT leaders, the strategic power of the XLA is that it produces actionable data and insights to improve the user experience over time. It does so by correlating three data domains: digital experience scores, sentiment capture and operational data. It also provides an accurate picture of how digital transformation is being taken up by users, helping to identity and remedy any adoption gaps and improving ROI.

In our new paper, we set out the new technology, metrics, people and thinking behind our XLA-based Led By Experience service, and how this can help you make informed decisions, provide a great digital experience for users and truly add value to your business.